Merritt, Cullen C.Kennedy, Sheila SuessKienapple, Matt R.2018-10-082018-10-082018Merritt, C. C., Kennedy, S.S., & Kienapple, M.R. (Forthcoming). The Cost of Saving Money: Public Service Motivation, Private Security Contracting, and the Salience of Employment Status. Public Performance & Management Review.https://hdl.handle.net/1805/17473The growth of government outsourcing has triggered significant legal and social science research. That research has focused primarily on issues of cost, accountability, and management. A thus far understudied question concerns the relevance and importance of public service motivations (PSM), especially when a government agency is proposing to outsource services that are considered inherently governmental. This exploratory study centers on the use of private security guards to augment government-provided public safety, and investigates the public service motivations of part-time and full-time employees of private security firms that regularly partner with—or seek to protect the public independent of—local police. Findings reveal that the presence or absence of motivations consistent with PSM was not attributable to private sector employment, but to whether informants were part-time or full-time employees.en-UScontractingpublic service motivationpublic safetygovernancehuman resources managementArticle